WORCESTER, Mass. - A $300,000 grant will allow a team at WPI to develop a robotic ultrasound machine to detect COVD-19.

X-Rays, CT scans, and ultrasounds are used to detect Covid in the lungs of patients, UT ultrasounds require technicians to sit next to the patient while preforming the scan.

This robotic ultrasound machine will allow health care providers to minimize their risk.

"With the challenge of current ultrasound there is the risk of transmission because it requires a healthcare provider, such as a doctor or sonographer, sitting right next to the patient to perform the scan and do the diagnosis. For that perspective they wanted to invent a robotic platform which can allow ultrasound scan perform so that the robot can sit next to the patient then performed the scan on behalf of the doctor where there is no risk of infection" said robotics professor, Dr. Haichong Zhang.

Zhang said ultrasound scans are also more affordable for health care systems. The first prototype is being tested in Nigeria.

WPI received the grant from National Institutes of Health.